Maine Restaurant Sedating Lobsters With Cannabis Under Investigation

A Maine restaurant that had been sedating lobsters with cannabis before boiling them alive is now under investigation for the culinary preparation, according to media reports. Charlotte Gill, the owner of Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound in Southwest Harbor, Maine, had been offering the option to patrons ordering live Maine lobster at the restaurant.

But state regulators have taken notice and now the Maine Health Inspection Program is investigating the practice, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services has confirmed.

Gill is a registered medical marijuana caregiver and grows the cannabis she uses for the lobster. But a spokesman for the Maine Medical Marijuana program, David Heidrich, said in an email that the use of cannabis was not appropriate.

“Medical marijuana may only be grown for and provided to persons with a marijuana recommendation from a qualified medical provider,” he said. “Lobsters are not people.”

Temporarily Off the Menu

The restaurant has temporarily stopped selling the “high-end lobster,” as Gill calls it, but she hopes to be able to offer it again.

“After being contacted by the state, and upon reviewing its present laws and codes applicable to this arena, and then making a few minor adjustments to our procedure, we are